President Obama Releases Prisoners To Yemen, Army Veteran Dies In Detainment: Widow Wants Answers

President Obama approved the releases of five Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo Bay earlier this month, and that decision has left Army widow Jen Hamen asking why.

Hamen is dealing with a horrible scenario made worse, for her, by the perception that the government her husband John fought and died for values terrorists more than its own people.

Jen expressed as much in a recent Facebook post following news of John’s death.

“So, let me get this straight,” she wrote. “My husband dies in custody in Yemen on the 6th [of November] and 9-10 days later the President wants to release 5 Yemeni people and send them back over to that area?!… Thanks Obama for NOT helping get my husband out alive!!!!! Thanks for releasing more terrorists! Yes, I am angry! I have every right to be!”

According to U.S. News and World Report, President Obama approved releases for the following prisoners: Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi, Khalid Abd-al-Jabbar Muhammad Uthman al-Qadasi, Adil Said al-Hajj Ubayd al-Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl al-Nahdi, and Fahmi Salem Said al-Asani.

“All were arrested fleeing the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks,” the site noted.

Jen updated the Facebook page of her husband about 10 days before the release, informing friends and family that “October 20th John was detained in Yemen while working as a contractor.”

The post continued, revealing that many of his contacts “probably did not know about this due to this being a privacy concern with officials in the government when it happened.”

On Nov. 6, Jen said, a few people from “different agencies” came to the family home to notify her and their seven children that John had died while in detainment. His body was then taken to a hospital, the update said, though no further details of his death were given by Jen or subsequent media reports.

Jen apologized for having to use Facebook as her notification method, but had been unable to call many of his friends due to the fact his phone and laptop were with him when he was detained, “and I do not have any of his contacts other than FB [Facebook],” she said.

“Our family is heartbroken right now, I have lost the love of my life, my best friend, and my 7 kids have lost the best dad ever!”

According to the Guardian, John Hamen was one of two U.S. contractors detained by the Houthi militia, supported by Iran, after arriving in the country in October.

The United Nations released further information earlier in the month, pointing out that the two contractors were employed by a company that “managed U.N. facilities.”

John Hamen and the other individual — unnamed in the press reports — were captured after they arrived from Djibouti “by Houthi militia and army units loyal to Yemen’s former president,” the U.N. added in comments to Reuters.

Mark Toner of the U.S. State Department expressed “deepest condolences to [Hamen’s] family and friends,” adding that “all possible consular assistance” had been offered to the family.

Hamen’s final LinkedIn profile update listed his occupation as “diplomatic support” while mentioning U.S. special operations command for the U.S. Army as former employment.

Jen Hamen is struggling to come to terms with why President Obama would approve releases of the five prisoners, whom the Guardian has referred to as “lower level” in terms of importance.

Low or high level, it offers no comfort to Jen or her and John’s friends, who expressed their outrage on the social media network.

Jennifer Watt called Obama approving the releases of the five prisoners “a slap… in our faces.”

Natascha Burlison Opalka called it an “a**hat move.” Anthony Cook added that it “feels like he’s seriously with them and not the U.S.”

Do you think it’s fair to lay what happened at the Commander-in-Chief’s door, and should President Obama have approved the releases of these prisoners while two contractors remained in detainment? Sound off in the comments section.

[Images via Jen, John Hamen Facebook Pages, linked above]